Bolt From the Blue: Suspended Over a Chasm

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0:32It's July the 26th, 2003. On a mountain in Wyoming, a major storm has just passed across the upper slopes. Wind whistles over the peak and the sky is austere and overcast. A low, static hum can still be heard in the air, and the smell of summer rain remains, the lingering signs of the tempest that just assaulted this mountain. Now, in the aftermath of the storm, there is an almost eerie calm. It's just gone four o 'clock in the afternoon. What sun is left is hidden behind grey, opaque cloud cover. In the gathering gloom, close to the summit, a tiny shape can be seen swinging against the vast, rocky mountain face.

1:24It's the silhouette of a man dangling at the end of a climbing road. But there is something not quite right about this image. The body is contorted, grotesquely bent out of shape, folded backwards around the pivot of the rope, limbs hanging limp either side. Something has gone horribly wrong. I just remember my head being really close to my foot for some reason, and I'm folded in half, my left arm is dangling, I have no feeling, in it. I have no feeling in my legs and my back hurts. I'm in excruciating pain. 27-year-old Rod Liberal is an experienced climber who, until a few moments ago, was comfortably approaching the top of Grand Teton, the tallest peak in this range.

2:19In a flash, he suddenly found himself in this twisted, terrifying position. What's gone wrong? How did he get here? Right now, that's a mystery. Pain pulsing through his body, Rod looks down to see he is suspended over a sheer drop. His climbing equipment hangs underneath him from a belt around his middle, putting extra pressure on his injured back. A grave decision presents itself. I remember un-clipping my bag and just deciding, like, do I let this thing fall? It's got my water in it, my food, and my radio, but I think the pain was so overwhelming that I did. I un-clipped, and I just remember seeing it fall away from me.

3:07I'm having this feeling of, like, oh, what did I just do? His vital rations disappear into the chasm below. Rod dangles over the precipice, totally alone. with no sign of rescue and no way of saving himself. He feels almost totally paralyzed, unable to move more than a few inches. How long will the rope hold? And how severe are his injuries? Everything hangs in the balance. So I started screaming. I started screaming for help, and there was no response. So panic started to set in. I was in a really bad situation.

3:56Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, an extreme expedition, an unexpected storm, and an unlikely bolt from the blue all combine to create the most horrifying of situations. Rod Liberal is a keen rock climber living in Idaho Falls in the western United States. In July of 2003, he is part of a group of 13 who set out to climb Grand Teton, the largest mountain in the Teton Range of Wyoming.

4:43But during the final ascent, something shocking happens, which changes everything in a flash. The next thing I remember is darkness, a sense of falling, flying through the air, and a sensation of confusion, not really knowing what's going on. In the blink of an eye, Rod finds himself perilously suspended on the end of a rope, with a deadly drop below. How did he end up here? Why can he barely move? And is there any hope at all? I'm on a slab that's completely exposed. I'm looking at a thousand foot exposure really all around me. Couldn't see anyone. What just happened? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

5:57It's July the 25th, 2003. Birdsong bounces between the slopes of the Teton mountain range. Below, fresh blue streams run through the valleys, and above, glacier-spotted peaks grow into the sapphire sky. Situated on the border of Wyoming and Idaho, the Tetons are a sub-range of the more famous Rockies. Amid the vast, undulating landscapes of green, grey, and white, small human figures trek their way onwards. 27-year-old Rod Liberal breathes hard as he navigates a rock-strewn, uneven path. alongside him are his friends Justin and Jake. The mountains provide a dramatic enriching backdrop as they travel.

6:46The Grand Teton National Park is an enormous 300 ,000 acre ecosystem relentlessly varied and visually stunning. The three men are in good spirits but this is by no means a walk park.

7:18For Rod, Justin and Jake, today's hike, tough as it may be, is just the preamble. As evening arrives, they meet up with a wider group of friends, fellow mountain enthusiasts, creating a combined party of 13. They pitch tents and make camp in the shadow of one particular mountain, the peak from which the park itself takes its name, Grand Teton. Everybody tries to get some much-needed sleep. Tomorrow is the main event. At almost 14 ,000 feet above sea level, Grand Teton stands alone as the park's tallest summit. And to scale it in a day requires an early start. We were waking up at 4 a.m. to actually finish the climb.

8:08So we didn't get much sleep that night. I think the adrenaline drove me, so we woke up really early to start our climb.

8:23It's still pitch black as the excited hikers unzip their tents and crawl bleary-eyed into the cool pre-dawn air. Only their head torches cut through the gloom, thirteen thin beams of electric light dancing across the rocky floor as they begin their ascent. Rod doesn't know everyone in the group all that well. In fact, he's meeting some of them for the very first time today, bonding as they navigate the tricky terrain heading towards Grand Teton. It was really tough. It gets steep pretty quickly. It was still nighttime, very cold, but we were really excited. I remember a lot of chatter in the hike.

9:06This is really where I met Erica and the rest of the group. As the sun begins to rise, so too does the nervous energy driving conversation. It becomes clear that Rod is one of the most experienced climbers in the party. They start arranging themselves into little subgroups, teams of three or four. Rod ends up with Clinton and Erica, a friendly married couple. With the mini teams decided and the sun now high in the sky, everything is set. The terrain starts to steepen, and Rod launches himself into a challenge he's been building towards for some time.

9:50As far as climbing goes, you know, I've always been pretty adventurous, even as a kid. So just trying to get up to places where most people don't get to was really appealing to me. Just trying to get away from civilization as often as we could. And I think that's really what attracted me, was just to be out in nature. Roderick Liberal was born in Brazil, but moved to the United States with his mother when he was 15. For a boy who had grown up in rural South America, attending high school in Boston was quite the culture shock. I was 15 years old, you know, and I was kind of just amazed at just being in the United States and Boston at that time.

10:30Coming from a real small town in Brazil, you know, growing up playing in the dirt and rivers, Boston felt completely different to me. It was a major city and lost sea and do. But very soon, Rod found a passion that changed everything. It helped him to settle, meet people, and push himself. I started rock climbing there with a really good friend of mine that I had met. We kind of became inseparable. I remember we took a class from a local guy to learn how to rock climb, and then he took us to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. That's really what captivated me, was just being out in nature in the U.S.

11:15for the first time and seeing the mountains and something I'd never seen before. This proved to be more than just a phase for Rod. As the years passed, climbing continued to be a big part of his life. When he and his best friend went their separate ways for college, They stayed in touch and frequently reunited thanks to their shared love. He left to come out west to Utah and I went to Florida for university, but we kept in touch and he was always inviting me to come out west because this was the outdoor mecca. You know, a lot of rock climbing here, a lot of outdoor activities, snowboarding. So I think it was 98, I came out to visit with my then-fiancée.

12:00Rod and his fiancée settled in Utah, and by the end of 2002 were expecting their first child. We were loving it here. It was really a breath of fresh air, quite literally, coming from Florida, Miami, to Salt Lake City, you know, wide open, no traffic, beautiful nature, the Rocky Mountains here, stunning. So we were really excited to be out here. But everything changed when Rod was unexpectedly made redundant. Without work in Utah, he was initially forced to take a job in Portland, Oregon to make ends meet. It was a plane flight away, a four-hour round trip. Not the ideal situation with a heavily pregnant partner who needed rest at home.

12:43Thankfully, help appeared in the form of an offer from Idaho. It was a well-paid job, and they were going to pay for my move, and it was in Idaho Falls. With a population of around 50 ,000 people, Idaho Falls was very different to Boston or Miami or even Salt Lake City. Rod had seemingly gone full circle and was now back to a more rural, small-town existence. But his ability to find like-minded people was undimmed. In fact, by now he was getting rather good at it. He fell in with some guys he met in his new office, outdoor enthusiasts and keen hikers, and their group expanded further to include family, friends, and friends of friends, until Rod soon found himself a key member of a growing and active climbing community.

13:36And as well as expanding his social horizons, the move to Idaho also brought him within touching distance of the state border with Wyoming and the Grand Teton National Park. The Tetons are stunning. If you ever get the chance to be up there, it's this beautiful valley, lush river cutting through it it's a really stunning stunning place majestic really so being up there with this group was quite the experience i definitely wanted more of it

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16:35It's around lunchtime on July the 26th, 2003. Rod and his climbing group are now well into their ascent of Grand Teton. The terrain becomes more and more difficult to navigate the higher they climb. In rock climbing parlance, everything becomes much more technical. The group start to use ropes, pulleys, carabiners. There is increased exposure to the elements. Altitude becomes a consideration. This is really kind of where things get a little more serious. You're beyond just hiking. You're actually getting into a little bit more technical ground. You have to be more careful. Soon the group arrives at Wall Street, the name given to a flat catwalk of rock that runs parallel to the vertical face of Grand Teton on one side.

17:25On the other side, there is a drop of approximately 1 ,000 feet. Wall Street is the point of no return. Once you pass Wall Street, there's a move you have to do to get over around this big boulder, a real technical move you have to make around this boulder. So once you get around that, you kind of can't really come back.

17:48Something else modern climbers have to get used to navigating, especially on popular routes such as this, is human traffic. Because Wall Street is a narrow ledge, the passage can only be tackled single file, which means there is quite often a queue with climbers having to wait their turn. Today's no exception. Rod's gang find themselves waiting for a group ahead of them, taking their time to pass safely through this more complicated stage of the climb. Here, at the foot of Wall Street, with nothing to do but wait their turn on the ledge, the mood in the group slowly starts to shift. A lot of people were tired, and we had our day packs on, but we were still carrying gear, you know, ropes and carabiners and stuff.

18:34Erika was really tired. She was complaining. Her legs hurt. She really wasn't feeling like going on. I remember Clinton being the supportive husband he is, just being like, you know, we can do it. I'll help you. This is going to feel great when we're done. I know it's hard right now. Anytime you're doing anything like that, there's always someone at some point that needs a little motivation. Rod's smaller group, made up of just him, Erica and Clinton, have a decision to make. Do they keep going? Or is this delay a sign they should turn back? Erica is unsure. I do remember talking to Erica and saying, hey, I'm here to help you if you need.

19:18We can get you through these rough spots now. So hang in there. We decided to keep going. The weather looked great. So we did. It's Rod's turn to tackle Wall Street. As he shimmies along the rocky pathway, the wind rushes up at him from the mountain valley, a yawning, exposed chasm dropping down for hundreds and hundreds of feet. Just walking through that slab with such big exposure, huge adrenaline rush. And this is the easy bit. Ahead, at the end of the catwalk, a large boulder blocks the path. This huge rock juts out over the deep drop. The only way past is to belly roll around it. Rod approaches.

20:09Then he clings onto the boulder, hugs it close to his chest, and straddles it, so he can step across a gap in the ledge. Sweat trickling down his forehead, his steps directly off of Wall Street, turning his back to the valley below. It's a huge test of coordination and metal. The move at the end of it, you have to kind of do a little hop over this chasm around this boulder, and it's super thrilling and one of those things that you're like, oh my gosh, I don't know if I can do this. Hands on the boulder, he leaps across the gap. And for the briefest of moments, he is levitating over the Teton Mountains, floating at several thousand feet above sea level, before he lands his front foot safely back on solid rock.

21:03Once you get through it, it was a big win, I'd say, for the group that morning to get past Wall Street.

21:16With this major obstacle conquered, the focus of the climb turns to what's known as the V-pitch, also referred to as the friction pitch. This is the business end of the ascent, where the top of the mountain is within a climber's sights. But now it's mid-afternoon, and what had been a perfect day for climbing is beginning to change. At first it's subtle. The clouds grow slightly darker. The breeze picks up. There is some moisture in the air. One or two drops of rain on the wind. Nothing really. But in the mountains, the weather can utterly turn in the blink of an eye. I do remember the mood had definitely changed.

22:00We had gotten a little bit of a drizzle. The temperature dropped to the 30s. It feels like dusk has arrived early. The skies go from grey to black. And as Rod, Erica and Clinton prepare to tackle the friction pitch, the heavens open. They will now be facing this final approach in the wind and rain. Not only that, but having lost time waiting to clear Wall Street, they also risk running out of daylight before reaching the top of the mountain. I don't know if it was a bit of a dread that we had, that something bad could happen, but I do remember everyone just being more quiet, being a little bit more nervous, and there was definitely a sense of urgency to get out of there.

22:50Friction Pitch, near the top of Grand Teton, is a solid wall of grey granite rock, essentially vertical, but with just enough jagged edges to allow climbers to pick out a path to the summit. Scaling it requires some complex rope work, so once again the group must ascend one at a time. The friction pitch was wet, so you can imagine it was extremely slippery and difficult. This was definitely a more technical climb. Clinton goes first, mapping a route up the wall and establishing anchors that Erika and Rod will shortly follow. Erica goes next. Rod watches her scale the face with relative ease, soon reaching her husband on a ledge that looms directly over his head.

23:40There they wait for Rod, about 50 feet above him. In horizontal rain, Rod approaches the rock and starts to follow the couple's guide ropes up the mountain. I start climbing and tough climb I remember you know your fingers are freezing at that point you're cold from the weather and from the fear a little bit and I get about halfway up the friction pitch and I just remember the wind hitting me and this feeling of like oof I kind of want to get out of here you know a relentless barrage of gusts hammers into Rod he does all he can to keep himself steady to keep inching his way upwards. One hand in front of another.

24:27And then there's something else in the air. An electrical hum vibrates on the breeze. Rod stops, taking stock. I just remember my heart pounding at that point. Like, if I fall here, I'm falling a long ways, you know? But there is little else to do at this point other than carry on. Deep breath, focus, and Rod resumes his climb. Just then, it happens. From the sky over his head, there is a flash. The clouds crack with a deafening bang, a blinding explosion of light and heat, and Rod is suddenly weightless. the next thing I remember is darkness a sense of falling flying through the air and not really knowing what's going on

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27:28It's just after 4 p.m. on July the 26th, 2003. And near the top of the Grand Teton Mountain in northwest Wyoming, Rod Liberal hangs limp on the end of a climbing rope. With the summer sun low in the sky, his contorted body rests against the rock face almost 14 ,000 feet above sea level, swaying and bouncing against the granite wall. Somehow, he has been blown horizontally around the mountain and has dropped around 30 feet. His descent was brought to an abrupt and violent end when the rope around his waist pulled taut. But Rod doesn't remember any of that. The first clue I had was just slamming against the wall, and I remember chipping my tooth.

28:22Again, I couldn't see anything, but I remember the feeling of this grittiness in my mouth and thinking, okay, I'm still alive. What just happened? Folded backwards, belly up, Rod is completely discombobulated. I just remember my head being really close to my foot for some reason, and I'm folded in half, my left arm's dangling. I have no feeling in it. I have no feeling in my legs. What do I do next? What is our situation? Where am I? Where's everybody else? I couldn't see anyone. All of a sudden, this sharp pain on my back, my lower back. So immediately I'm like, well, I guess I broke my back.